"Rake Coals of the Pyre" 

On January 12th of 1931, in Maryville, Missouri, Raymond Gunn was burnt to death on a schoolhouse after a mob took him from police custody. Gunn was an African American man who had been accused of murdering a young schoolteacher Velma Coulter on December 16th, 1930. He was accused of this crime only a few days after it occurred and spent the next month of his life in police custody and in various jails around the state. He had to be moved several times due to the threat against his life before he could get a trial. When he returned to Maryville for his indictment, he was forcibly removed from the local jail by a mob and taken to his death.

​

Newspapers with headings like the Kansas City Times "Rake Coals of the Pyre" highlighted the gruesome nature of Gunn's lynching.